Julia Deans, singer, songwriter and guitarist for Fur Patrol, is in something of a froth.
She's lamenting the cost of a cup of coffee in Auckland ($4), as compared to Melbourne ($2.50), her adopted home since 2001.
In Auckland recently during a brief visit to promote her band's new album, Local Kid, Dean, of course, has much more on her mind than a cuppa.
It has been a while between drinks - five years, in fact, since Fur Patrol last released an album - thus there is plenty of catching up to do.
Deans, via a telephone chat that comprises equal measures of laughter and lamentation, doesn't disappoint.
Released next week, Local Kid is a back-to-basics affair, an approach necessitated by the fact the band has lost a member of its original four-strong line-up.
Gone is lead guitarist Steve Wells.
Deans, no slouch on guitar, having played it since her early teens, fills the gap.
Still, in some cases, it's the gaps that make the music all the better.
Preparations for the album began about two and a-half years ago.
Recording started last year.
"It took us a while to work out what we were doing because we had obviously lost a band member, so we had to learn how to be a three-piece and write songs," Deans explains.
"I think mostly we wanted to record an album that sounded like the three of us playing in a room, which I think is pretty much what we've achieved.
Obviously, there are a couple more layers in there but there is no heavy layering like there was with [previous album] Collider or even with Pet."
Thus Fur Patrol has returned to the instinctive approach that served it so well on its 1998 debut EP, Starlifter.
Deans' voice comprises the centrepiece of the 11 songs on Local Kid.
It's a good move; her strident, angular guitar allied to the fluid yet no-frills approach of bassist Andrew Bain and drummer Simon Braxton.
As Deans had hoped, it sounds upfront and in-your-face, just like three band-mates playing in a room.
"We made sure we could play the songs really well, so there was a groove going on. That meant we could go into the studio and get it down quickly and freshly, because there is nothing worse than going in and labouring over the best take.
"If you can't get it in the first three or four takes, then you're not going to," Deans says.
Pick up seminal Australian albums from the '80s or early '90s and you're likely to see the name of Tony Cohen.
The Australian producer, whose credits include Nick Cave's Birthday Party and Bad Seeds projects, the Cruel Sea and Hunters and Collectors, also had a big part to play in the overall tone and feel of Local Kid.
"He is a character. He has some great tales to tell, some pretty horrific stories," Deans says.
"Tony is basically a recorder, a mixer. His approach to recording and mixing is so unique that he stamps his own mark on it anyway.
"He likes to get really good sound and he likes to get you in there and get the song recorded quickly, which suits us. He just gets beautiful, raw but warm- sounding recordings."
There is also a tension to the songs, a slow-burn effect that suggests the process of recording Local Kid was as cathartic as it was creative.
In an environment in which many acts attempt to release records at least every 24 months, a gap of five years between full albums is an epoch.
Remember this is a band that in 2001 was nominated for four of the big prizes at the New Zealand Music Awards - Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and Best Female Vocalist.
The addition of another three production-type nominations meant the band filled all but one category for which it was eligible, though it eventually took just the one, Deans being judged Best Female Vocalist.
It has also had a No 1 single, Lydia, off the platinum-selling 1999 album, Pet, released on Warner NZ.
The 2003 follow-up, Collider, was put out by Universal, and 2007 EP Long Distance Runner was self-released.
Their debut recording was 1998's Starlifter, released on New Zealand independent label Wishbone.
Local Kid is with another New Zealand independent, Tardus.
In short, they've moved around a bit.
The band members have spent roughly half of their career based in New Zealand and the other half in Australia.
They've toured throughout the United Kingdom and America, shot a music video in Hollywood, received awards and toured Australia and New Zealand time and again.
These days, Deans and Braxton live in Melbourne. Bain is based in Wellington.
Asked if Local Kid is the result of a certain frustration over momentum being lost somewhere along the way, Deans pauses, then agrees.
"I think that is fairly true . . . There are things I really want to say, but I don't know if I should."
She does anyway.
"We moved to Australia seven years ago. Initially, we were with Warner in Australia and they begrudgingly took us on. They weren't really interested, so there was no love lost there, really.
"Warner in New Zealand were still distributing our second album; they essentially dropped the ball with us. They had been great for the first album in New Zealand but ...
"One of the problems with big companies is people move on, so when you lose the key person who has been driving your campaign, you don't really have your team anymore.
"Everyone had been under this pressure from on high to meet numbers, so they pushed the last album out when it really wasn't ready to go and I don't think that helped at all.
"We've definitely worn some pretty . . . ah . . . stink stuff. But we can't be totally blameless when it comes to that. There was a certain amount of naivety on our part, but we feel like we've had every bad record deal cliché." Deans laughs. (What else can you do?)
The departure of Wells in 2004 following long gigging to promote Collider came as no surprise.
"Financially and emotionally exhausted", the band members were all a little disillusioned with the music business at the time.
"I think Steve's heart hadn't been in it for quite a while so when he handed in his resignation . . . We were all feeling the same way, questioning ourselves. We took a big step back from music and had to deal with our own heads for a while."
Deans says she spent a year or so "getting really drunk".
She had some good times, but admits the mornings-after were a little painful.
"Andrew, Simon and I came back together and had lots of really deep, heartfelt conversations, tears. We decided that we really loved playing music together and we had to start again.
"Every step that has gone toward making the album - not so much the non-musical stuff, but the actual music-making - has been awesome and reassuring. I guess it validates all these things we've been feeling."
Deans, in her early 30s, also roams outside the parameters of Fur Patrol on occasion.
She has recently collaborated with Samuel Flynn Scott, HDU and Tiki Taane.
She has also played of solo gigs, including performances on ferries bobbing up and down on Cook Strait.
She has a part-time job in Melbourne , ("it's pretty boring"), a boyfriend and a new musical project writing music for an Australian television show that is still in its funding stage.
There are also plans to tour again, to promote Local Kid on both sides of the Tasman.
A small showcase gig previewing tracks from the album was held in Auckland a couple of months back and a more extensive tour is planned for summer, though no firm dates have been set.
Local Kid may best be enjoyed at volume, yet it also has something of a collective sigh about it.
But don't be fooled: it's not a sigh of resignation, but rather a happy exhalation.
Although Deans hopes others will enjoy it sufficiently to part with some cash, a part of her doesn't really care what happens.
"If it takes off and people love it, then that's awesome. If it doesn't, we love what we've done anyway.
"It's like we've come full circle, because that's what we were like when we first started playing."
